WASHINGTON (Staff Report) – Former Pakistani ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani has condemned a statement by the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, in which he had accused an unnamed former ambassador of lobbying against Pakistan’s interest.

Responding to the allegations, Haqqani said that he was not creating hurdles for Pakistan; rather he was against the government’s failed policies. Officials making decisions in Islamabad should come forward and take responsibility for their failures and the straining of Pak-US ties, he added.

“I am now working as a professor in the United States, not as an envoy, and if my scholarly opinions carry so much weight that US policy towards Pakistan is based on them, Pakistani officials should try to convince me through argument instead of treating me like someone who is lobbying against his own country,” said Haqqani, in a statement.

“I have written as many as three books, in which I have criticized some policies of Pakistan that have damaged Pakistan’s interests, and I believe I am serving the interests of Pakistan to its best this way,” the former ambassador said.

He urged his opponents, including Sartaj Aziz, to write a few books and disapprove his arguments about the failed policies of successive Pakistani governments.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sartaj Aziz had informed the Senate that a former Pakistani ambassador was working against his own country in the US, further adding that Pakistan’s diplomatic mission in the US was facing challenges due to the former ambassador’s campaign.